Here’s what you do to win:

ON TWITTER (not on this blog and not on linkedin), I want you to introduce one of your LinkedIn connections to another person on Twitter, and tag the introduction with #linkedin. Here’s an example:

“Hey @davedelaney: I’d love for you to meet @incslinger. You’d appreciate him. #linkedin”

The first 50 that I count doing that will receive a copy of Trust Agents, courtesy of LinkedIn.

Mario and LinkedIn believe that what LinkedIn does best is offer a way to share trusted relationships. I think that’s the very best thing they do. The reputation engine at the heart of LinkedIn, including the recommendation system, is my favorite. That’s one of the things I really love about the service.

So, get tweeting if you want a free copy of Trust Agents. :)

So, Mario had an idea for a giveaway. Here’s how it works:

Answer this question ON TWITTER (not on this blog): “Who from your LinkedIn network would you endorse and why?” Respond VIA TWITTER and either share the URL to that person’s profile, or at least tag the post #linkedin to be considered.

The first 50 people who respond ON TWITTER appropriately to the question will get a copy of Trust Agents sent to them, courtesy of LinkedIn.

Want to play?

Twitter

1. Find seven things worth retweeting in your general feed and share.
2. Reply to at least five things with full responses (not just “thanks”).
3. Point out a few people that you admire. It shows your mindset, too.
4. Follow back at least 10 folks. (I use an automated tool, but this is a personal preference. If you want such, I use SocialToo.)
5. 10 minutes of just polite two-way chit chat goes far.

Facebook

6. Check in on birthdays on the home page. (Want a secret? Send the birthday wish via Twitter or email. Feels even more deliberate.)
7. Respond to any comments on your wall.
8. Post a status message daily, something engaging or interesting.
9. Comment on at least seven people’s status messages or updates.
10. Share at least 3 interesting updates that you find.
11. If you belong to groups or fan pages, leave a new comment or two.

LinkedIn

11. Accept any invitations that make sense for you to accept.
12. Enter any recent business cards to invite them to LinkedIn (if you’re growing your network).
13. Drop into Q&A and see if you can volunteer 2-3 answers.
14. Provide 1 recommendation every few days for people you can honestly and fully recommend.
15. Add any relevant slide decks to the Slideshare app there, or books to the Amazon bookshelf.

Blogs

16. Visit your blog’s comments section and comment back on at least 5 replies.
17. If you have a few extra minutes, click through to the blogs of the commenters, and read a post or two and comment back.
18. While on those sites, use a tool like StumbleUpon and promote their good work.
19. Write the occasional post promoting the good work of a blog in your community.

It’s Not Easy

Maintaining your online presence takes time. If you look at all I’ve listed above, that’s easily more than an hour of work. But it depends what the value of that presence is to you, if you’re doing this as an individual, or to your organization, if you’re doing this on behalf of a brand or product.

We’ve traded dollars for time, in lots of these equations, as we see the return on our advertising spend diminish. It’s your choice whether you want to maintain an active online presence, or if you want to get away with a bit less.

What do you think?

For instance, I’m pulling the “Greater Boston Area” to see who I want to invite to a private function. I’m doing scrape and clean-up because there’s no function to take their version of “Greater Boston Area” and export it. (If I’m wrong about this, please tell me how).

You’ve given me a powerful tool to connect with people. I’m connected. Now what?

I’ve written Using the Social Web to Find Work as a free ebook for you to download and share with others. It includes ideas and information from [chrisbrogan.com], and takes you from the specifics of using LinkedIn to your benefit, into some ideas on how to grow and nurture your social networks ahead of a need for them.

It’s not much, but I wanted to help in one way that I know how – by providing ideas and actionable information.

Please share this liberally by pointing back to this original post.

Using the Social Web to Find Work (pdf)

Elements of a Good LinkedIn Recommendation

LinkedIn, the business network for professionals, is more than a living resume. It’s a reputation engine, a visual representation of your business network’s reach, and a place to express your business capabilities. I use it all the time to reach out to people, to find potential opportunities where I can help others, and to share what knowledge I have with others.

I have a difference of opinion with LinkedIn about who I connect with as a business colleague. They recommend that you link only to people you’ve done business with directly, and who you trust. I don’t do it that way. I connect with nearly anyone.

Where I take my stand, however, is recommendations.

Recommend Colleagues

The people I recommend are people that I can say something good about. You’ll see that I’ve passed on recommendations for over 150 people so far. I could say more about more people, and I try to write a few every week (around 10). They do take a while, so I try to balance it out.

You’ll notice when you read the recommendations that I give that I use different levels of language. I only say “I highly recommend” when I feel someone is the very best of breed in a specific function. I often say something more about hiring someone to achieve success. So, pay attention to your own language within the recommendation. I’ll cover that more in a bit.

If you can it, and you have time, do it. It goes a long way when people see a profile and find a recommendation to go with it. The service you perform by recommending others you’ve done work with goes well in both directions. It says something about that person, and it says something about you for taking the time to participate and recommend.

But what should you say? How should you help someone by writing a recommendation? And what are some of the rules of etiquette around this?

What to Say

Recommendations are social proof. They exist so that a third party will obtain a better perspective on your business colleague’s profile. Thus, your goal, ultimately, is to make sure that third party feels educated about your colleague. Make sense?

As such, be very clear about what you’re recommending.

Here’s my recommendation for Mister. Ben Grossman:

Ben Grossman represents the next wave of dynamic speakers on Internet culture and its impact on business. His presentations have covered the pulse of the Millennials, the Return on Branding Influence, and I’ve heard a few other topics come out of Ben that were equally as interesting. He spoke at my New Marketing Summit event in October 2008, and then I watched him at Jeff Pulver’s Social Media Jungle in November. Those two performances were golden, and the audience in both cases were at the edge of their seats. Ben Grossman is going places. Will you be one of those places?

I’ve recommended Ben as a speaker. I haven’t spoken a word about his work ethic, about whether he can save the world or not, about whether his speeches will help you make money. I’ve mentioned that he’s dynamic. I’ve even ended with a bit of a pitch.

When I can be more specific, I do it. If I can’t, or I don’t choose to be specific, I don’t.

Be aware that the person you’re writing the recommendation for is looking for your words to help act as leverage with a prospective new business partner.

Use terms that suggest this. Say things like: “C.C. Chapman has successfully executed more actionable social media strategies than most people have even started to think about. He counts companies like Coke, American Eagle, and Verizon amongst his client base. His projects have involved building Facebook applications, deploying blogger relationships campaigns, and defining online brand engagement strategies. C.C. works in the specific, starting from the landscape, but ending in actionable engagements. I’d recommend him with any project that requires the very best in social media execution.”

Do you see how that recommendation both beams with appreciation but also recommends ways you can engage with CC? Do you see how I’ve given social proof (mentioning his bigger clients) while also mentioning what he does and what differentiates him?

That’s how you want to write your LinkedIn recommendations for friends.

How to Ask for Recommendations

Ask people who know you well enough to recommend you. Just because we’re Facebook friends or because you’ve commented on my blog doesn’t mean that I know your body of work well enough to recommend you. Asking someone who doesn’t know you very well for a recommendation is inviting an awkward moment at best, and a horribly mis-representative recommendation at best.

Use the recommendation system within LinkedIn to send the recommendation request. If you email it to someone, it’s another chance to NOT get it filled out. The system’s there and it’s easy, and it stacks up the requests in a queue for someone to address when they have a moment.

The best way I’ve found to ask for recommendations is not to ask. I’ve asked people from time to time, but I’ve found that my best recommendations come when I write a good recommendation for someone I can vouch for. Call it quid pro quo, but when folks see that you’ve written a wonderful piece of praise for their professional talents, they’re inclined to help out in response.

What Did I Miss?

Any questions about LinkedIn and recommendations? What else do you want to know about the process? Have you seen recommendation techniques or tips that you want to share with us?

Oh, and if you’d like to connect, here’s my profile and if you use the email linkedin at chrisbrogan dot com to connect, we should be just fine.

Photo credit, foundphotoslj

This is just a starting post. I have more on my mind, but I’m writing a book and attending a conference at the same time.

What do you think? If LinkedIn’s doing all kinds of apps, what do YOU want them to slip in there? (And if you say Twitter, I’ll poke you in the nose.)

Others are going to write about the platform and what it means to have apps there and will this work as a business. I don’t give a rat’s ass. You, and I’m talking to you, run out and get into your account today. Link up your WordPress or TypePad blog. Put up a few of your last presentations using the new SlideShare application. Consider throwing TripIt on there, and showing people where they can run into you at upcoming events. This is just dog clever.

Run to LinkedIn and incorporate your stuff into your profile. Make sure it’s a great complement to what you’re already doing, and amp up the way you promote yourself using that service.

What do you think? What other kinds of apps should LinkedIn be seeking? What apps do you use that make sense as another addon to the platform? How will this impact how you’re doing business?

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Write Your LinkedIn Profile For Your Future

First Impressions

First, your headline matters. It’s what people see when they accept your invite, and it’s probably the fastest first impression one receives. If you work for a company, put that name in the headline. When I don’t see a company name, I wonder if you’re solo.

Your Summary

Here’s where I think the most work can be done. When I look at my profile, I think it’s a bit long, but otherwise, I’ve done the following:

• Lead with what I do most.
• Lead with the type of business I want to do.
• Move into the reasons why you’d do business with me.
• Move from there into all the nuances of what I do.

In every case within the summary, your plan should be to write from the mindset of the prospective employer (or client), such that when they read it, they think, “I need to hire this person.”

Tip: refresh your summary every two weeks.

Your Work Experience

Here, I do something you might not expect. I make sure my past experience still supports my current and future aspirations. I write the past work experience summary to highlight those functions I performed that will still be useful to the current and future goals. Why? Because if you’re still reading that far down my summary, you want to kick the tires a little on my experience.

Tip: Refresh your past work experience sections every four weeks or so.

Power Moves: Recommendations

Ask people for recommendations. Be smart about it, though. Ask people who can vouch for your abilities.

I receive a few requests for recommendations a week from people I know from Twitter. I’m sorry, but I can’t really vouch for you. And this, to me, the reputation engine part of LinkedIn, is the most important part of the product. I will only recommend people that I would hire for myself, or that I would work for. At the time of this writing (August 2008), I’ve written 146 recommendations.

In both cases, I feel that recommendations are powerful.

What’s Next?

A list of next steps:

1. Review your LinkedIn profile. Look at it as if you’re a prospective new boss, or a client. Would you hire YOU to do something? If not, rewrite it. Keep it tight. Do as much editing as you can.
2. Enter your blog’s RSS feed on the profile page. People want more color.
3. Add a photo. Not one of those weird grown up versions of a school class picture. Find a good candid. If you don’t have one, go to a social media meetup. Someone will snap you a good one. Worried about discrimination? Guess what: they’ll figure it out eventually. Get it out of the way up front.
4. Start writing quality recommendations for people you can vouch for. If they can do the same for you, ask for one back. If not, hold off. No sense making someone feel awkward.
5. Grow your network. LinkedIn and I don’t agree on this. I say connect to whoever. It helps you build a network. (I only recommend people I can vouch for, and to me, that’s where who you know or don’t know really matters).
6. Keep looking at your profile as it applies to your future.

My own LinkedIn profile is here. If you want to connect, I use linkedin at chrisbrogan dot com as my address.

And you? What’s worked well for you?

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.

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Shiv Singh reports at Going Social Now that Adam Nash of LinkedIn pitched the audience at O’Reilly’s Graphing Social Patterns (wish I could go, but couldn’t) about why people should advertise at LinkedIn. Ouch. No, please. That’s not the big story for LI, is it? No.

LinkedIn Is Sitting On SO Many Opportunities

As the best known and most powerful professional social network (note: “professional”, Facebook fans), LinkedIn has a LOT of data and information that’s valuable in ways other than as ad fodder. It just feels like there are lots of untapped applications that could be written atop that data. You mentioned a while ago opening up the platform (Remember, I asked Mario Sundar to convey my LinkedIn tools I need right now a while back?). Why not open it up for commerce?

Okay, if money making is just a side opportunity, cool, but if this is the big strategy between now and 2009? Screw it. I’ll go make a professional social network, use all my resources to beg, borrow, and deliver value to people formerly in my LI network, and see if I can’t make something bigger happen than what seems to be lacking over in the land of blue wizards. (BTW, seeing a lot more of that “stuff is broken Wizard” lately.)

Am I moaning and complaining? A bit. Why? Because I really love LinkedIn’s potential and really want it to do more for me.

Please, Adam, tell me this is just one stop on the way to application greatness, and not the plan?